Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Griffin, you are our hero! It's been 3 long weeks since your rescue and you have won the hearts of 40,000 people!! What happened to you is inexcusable and we wish we could take your pain away. While we cannot change your past, we can and will do everything in our power to find out everything wrong with you and get you healthy again. Thank you for hanging in there and believing in us!! We you so much!!!!

Jade's burns are second degree and chemical in nature. She has been put under general anesthesia twice already to clean and treat these horrific burns. Please keep this sweet girl in your thoughts and prayers.

We are getting inquiries about placement for jade, but that is premature for now. She will be hospitalized and treated for the forseeable future and she cannot have any type of behavior evaluation, so we have no idea how she is w other animals or kids.

Another happy before and after! Luke was one of our biggest medical cases of 2014. He spent 2 months at a SC vet before being healthy enough to travel up north to his forever home. Luke had been dragged and was a mess. His pads of his paws were all burnt thru and took many months to heal.

It is so rewarding to see him in a home where he is loved and cherished! We love you Luke!!

Phew! How misguided! The EXPANDED BOTTLE BILL will reduce municipal costs, get rid of ROAD TRASH!

It's long passed time to EXPAND THE BOTTLE BILL!$90,000? Maybe they should reduce their prices instead of opposing legislation that just makes sense.

Once again, do you shop at The Big Y supermarkets? The company just donated (an additional) $90,000.00 to influence the vote and oppose expansion of the bottle bill in Massachusetts. Have you seen the television commercials that they are bankrolling? They are not only distortions of the truth and misrepresentations, they are outright lies. The Big Y is still a business that likes to present itself as local, with its corporate offices in Springfield.

I just called and spoke for about 10 minutes with a very nice lady in the Big Y consumer relations department. They need more calls like mine. The phone number is 1-800-828-2688, Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. You can call them RIGHT NOW.

Amazing drone footage of Hong Kong residents bringing the city to a standstill. Occupy Central announced the beginning of a civil disobedience campaign intended to disrupt Asia’s largest financial center until its demands for free elections are met. The campaign is riding a wave of momentum following a sit-in over the weekend where televised clashes between police and students, some of whom were pepper sprayed, prompted city residents to rally in support of the students.‪#‎OccupyCentral‬‪#‎HongKong‬

Greenwald and
Hussain | The Fake Terror Threat Used to Justify Bombing SyriaGlenn Greenwald and
Murtaza Hussain, The InterceptExcerpt:
"After spending weeks depicting ISIS as an unprecedented threat -- too radical
even for Al Qaeda! -- administration officials suddenly began spoon-feeding
their favorite media organizations and national security journalists tales of a
secret group that was even scarier and more threatening than ISIS, one that
posed a direct and immediate threat to the American Homeland. Seemingly out of
nowhere, a new terror group was created in media lore."READ
MORE

History's
Largest Trade Agreements Are Being Negotiated in SecretAlvaro Guzman Bastida, Al
Jazeera AmericaBastida writes: "With
NAFTA still untouched, Obama faced the decision to appoint the chief U.S.
negotiators for the two largest trade agreements in history. And he picked Wall
Street bankers for the job."READ
MORE

Why Obama
Can't Say His Spies Underestimated ISISEli Lake, The Daily BeastLake writes: "In an interview that aired
Sunday evening, the president told 60 Minutes that the rise of the group now
proclaiming itself a caliphate in territory between Syria and Iraq caught the
U.S. intelligence community off guard. Obama specifically blamed James Clapper,
the current director of national intelligence."READ
MORE

Judge Won't
Stop Detroit Water Shutoffs, Says No Right to Free WaterRobert Snell and Steve
Pardo, The Detroit NewsExcerpt: "U.S.
Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes on Monday refused to block the city from shutting
off water to delinquent customers for six months, saying there is no right to
free water and Detroit can't afford to lose the revenue."READ
MORE

California
Adopts Historic 'Yes Means Yes' Rule on Sexual ConsentAssociated PressExcerpt: "The governor of California, Jerry Brown, has
signed a bill that makes the state the first in the United States to define when
'yes means yes' and adopt requirements for colleges to follow when investigating
sexual assault reports."READ
MORE

Ferguson
Demands High Fees to Turn Over Michael Brown Shooting FilesJack Gillum, Associated
PressGillum writes: "Officials in
Ferguson, Missouri, are charging nearly 10 times the cost of some of their own
employees' salaries before they will agree to turn over files under public
records laws about the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown."READ
MORE

WHO: Premature
Deaths Multiply as Climate ChangesDaniel Cusick and ClimateWire,
Scientific American Cusick writes: "The
World Health Organization predicts that an additional 250,000 people will die
annually between 2030 and 2050 from conditions caused or exacerbated by climate
change, the Geneva-based agency reported yesterday in an update of climate
mortality estimates."READ
MORE

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. may face dual setbacks as a U.S. regulator renews its scrutiny of claims involving unintended acceleration and the company begins to recall 690,000 pickup trucks.

As many as 1.69 million Toyota Corollas with model years from 2006 to 2010 could be subject to investigation after owners said they experienced unintended “low-speed surging,” according to a notice yesterday from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Separately, Toyota recalled Tacoma trucks to fix suspension parts that may break down.

The Corolla complaints are reminiscent of the sudden, unintended acceleration episodes that led the world’s largest automaker to recall more than 10 million vehicles in 2009 and 2010. Toyota paid a record $1.2 billion penalty, admitted it misled consumers and agreed to three years of supervision by an independent monitor to oversee its safety practices as part of a settlement with the U.S. in March.

Now let's see if he does his JOB!

“Toyota will cooperate fully with any inquiry,” said Ed Lewis, a spokesman for the Toyota City, Japan-based manufacturer.

The Tacoma recall covers trucks with model years 2005 through 2011. While Toyota said in a statement it isn’t aware of any crashes, injuries or fatalities associated with the defect, several truck owners have filed complaints with NHTSA about faulty leaf springs damaging the brakes of their vehicles.

Tacoma Complaints

“Just leaving work to go pick up my children from school, I noticed a strange rattling coming from the bottom side of my truck,” one owner wrote of an incident that occurred in May. “I noticed the middle (of three) leaf springs had completely broke, slid out of place, and was rubbing against my brake line.”

In June, another Toyota pickup owner said a broken leaf spring cut the vehicle’s brake line, while the driver’s 8-year- old child was in the truck.

Toyota has sought to repair its reputation for quality that was blemished by the unintended acceleration recalls and contributed to the company losing its title as the world’s top- selling automaker in 2011 to General Motors Co. The Toyota City, Japan-based company regained leadership in each of the last two years and clung to its lead over Volkswagen AG through the first half of 2014.

Throttle Control

While Toyota’s past unintended acceleration cases led the company to modify gas pedals and floor mats, NHTSA said its latest case, which hasn’t escalated to a full defect investigation, focuses on

Corollas equipped with an electronic throttle-control system called ETCS-i.

NO RESPECTABLE JOURNALIST WHO HAS DONE HIS RESEARCH WOULD REPEAT THE TOYOTA PROPAGANDA BELOW! BLOOMBERG, YOU'RE BETTER THAN THIS!

NASA, the U.S. space agency, and NHTSA conducted a 10-month probe ending in February 2011 that found unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles were the result of mechanical flaws and found no electronic defects were to blame.

This month, a Corolla owner whose car accelerated and crashed while attempting to park asked the agency to investigate, saying there were 163 reports of similar incidents.

Safety Research and Strategies Inc., a Rehoboth, Massachusetts-based company that works on court cases alleging automotive defects, said petitioners have evidence from the electronic data recorders in their cars that the brakes were being applied while their Corollas sped up.

Ruth Bader
Ginsberg: Obama Can't Appoint a Replacement I Want to See on the
CourtJessica Weisberg, Elle
MagazineExcerpt"Anybody who thinks
that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they're misguided. As
long as I can do the job full steam.... I think I'll recognize when the time
comes that I can't any longer. But now I can."READ
MORE

U.S. Bid For
Secret Guantánamo Force-Feeding Hearings Prompts Cover-Up FearsSpencer Ackerman, Guardian
UKAckerman writes: "The Obama
administration has asked a federal judge to hold a highly anticipated court
hearing on its painful force-feedings of Guantánamo Bay detainees almost
entirely in secret, prompting suspicions of a cover-up."READ
MORE

Supreme Court
Returns to Work, Blocks Early Voting in OhioLyle Denniston, SCOTUS BlogDenniston writes: "With just sixteen hours
before polling stations were to open in Ohio, the Supreme Court on Monday
afternoon blocked voters from beginning tomorrow to cast their ballots in this
year's general election. By a vote of five to four, the Justices put on hold a
federal judge's order providing new opportunities for voting before election
day, beyond what state leaders wanted."READ
MORE

Hong Kong
Protesters Stockpile Supplies, Fear Fresh Police AdvanceDonny Kwok and Yimou Lee,
ReutersExcerpt: "Tens of thousands of
pro-democracy protesters extended a blockade of Hong Kong streets on Tuesday,
stockpiling supplies and erecting makeshift barricades ahead of what some fear
may be a push by police to clear the roads before Chinese National Day."READ
MORE

U.S. Signs
Deal for Troops to Remain in AfghanistanSudarsan Raghavan, The Washington
PostRaghavan writes: "The United
States and Afghanistan on Tuesday signed a vital security deal that allows some
American troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond this year, ensuring a continuing
U.S. presence in the region."READ
MORE

Bill de Blasio
Expands Living Wage Law to Thousands More Workers, Raises Wage to
$13.10/HourMatt Flegenheimer, The New York
TimesFlegenheimer writes: "Mayor Bill
de Blasio plans to sign an executive order on Tuesday significantly expanding
New York City's living wage law, covering thousands of previously exempt workers
and raising the hourly wage itself, to $13.13 from $11.90, for workers who do
not receive benefits."READ
MORE

West Virginia
Plans to Frack Beneath Ohio River, Which Supplies Drinking Water to
MillionsEmily Atkin, ThinkProgressAtkin writes: "Nine citizen and environmental
groups are urging West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to reconsider his plans to
let companies drill for oil and natural gas underneath the Ohio River, citing
concerns that drilling and fracking could contaminate the drinking water supply
and increase the risk of earthquakes in the region."READ
MORE

Breaking: Today, at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York, President Obama announced a new set of tools to harness the unique scientific and technological capabilities of the United States to help vulnerable populations around the world strengthen their climate resilience.

"Speaker Boehner was blaming President Obama for his own refusal to bring popular legislation to the House floor for a vote. Boehner has refused to allow the House to vote on the Senate passed immigration reform bill. He won’t bring legislation to the floor to raise the minimum wage, and he has spent nearly a year refusing to allow a vote on extending unemployment benefits. This the same John Boehner, who stated in February that he would rather , commit suicide than raise the minimum wage"

OUR MOMS HAVE GUN SENSE: The gun lobby both insults women and woos them as customers. Unfortunately for NRA's leaders and gun manufacturers' profits, when it co...mes to their portrayal of modern-day American mothers, we're not buying what they're selling: bit.ly/1qKYgdA